Chapter 13
LAKE:
A couple of days had passed since I last saw her. All my efforts to return to the restaurant had proved futile. My business required all my attention, there was no way I could sit still in a restaurant and wait for a whore-turned-waitress to get off work.
I walked into the office of my Assistant, Neil. He rose to his feet instantly, bowing in courtesy.
“Sit.”
He obeyed immediately.
“You should have just sent for me, Alpha.”
“I decided to move around today.” My eyes traveled around his furnished office, courtesy of yours truly.
“The search for the strippers, how is it coming along?”
“There have been a lot of applications and few interviews. We are almost at our target. It’s taking a little more time because we’re trying to select the best.”
I listened to him speak, moving towards where he sat. He stuck his eyes into his monitor. I stood beside him and leaned in to take a look.
“Any problems?”
“Unprofessionalism should be the top on the list. Many of them lack professionalism and others lack experience. Most have a questionable background. A few others are just not qualified for the job. There was one who applied two days ago, a mechanic.” He spoke again.
I frowned and straightened my stance.
“Didn’t you specify the gender? Only females?”
I noticed him staring at me with faint amusement in his eyes. There was nothing funny about this piece of information.
“I did, the mechanic is female, Alpha.”
I tucked my hands into my pocket. Now, I was interested.
“Show me.”
He typed away on his keyboard and turned to look at me. I leaned in to take a closer look.
JoJo Wyatt.
I was looking into familiar green eyes. Her fiery flame of red hair was just like a lion’s mane. Fate just couldn’t help itself, could it?
“Did you reject it already?”
“No, boss.” He answered promptly and I continued,
“Accept her application. She got the job.”
He hesitated for a while, then my gaze landed on him. He jerked up and clicked the select icon.
“Done boss.”
The fact that she was also a mechanic piqued my interest.
Whore, waitress, and mechanic. The goddess only knew what other things she did to survive. The more I found out about her, the more I wanted to have nothing to do with her. Our joke of a bond had to be broken, severed, and exterminated.
“I want a full background report on her, first thing tomorrow morning.”
“Copy, boss.” He replied curtly.
I stepped out of the glass doors of his office, heading to mine. I kept my keen eyes on all offices.
I had barely reached my office when I caught sight of Jessika, my first blind date. She broke out into a wide smile at the sight of me. Her tall lean legs clad in a brown pencil skirt, she walked towards me.
“Hi… um, Lake. I-”
“Alpha Lake.” I cut in. She was in no place to address me by my name. She did seem surprised but soon swallowed her humiliation.
“Oh, okay… Alpha Lake, I just wanted to ask you out on another date. A different place, if you do not mind.” I watched her lips move. Her solemn speech bored me out of my mind.
“No.”
I moved to brush past her, but she was faster and blocked my path. Security guards saw this and rose to their feet.
The audacity.
“Come on, Lake… I mean, Alpha Lake, I like you. Let’s just get to know each other, it’ll be worth your while. I was only trying to get your attention on the first date. I learned my lesson and I’m begging you for one last chance, please.”
I did not utter a word. She was not worth my words, nor my golden silence, but she had to receive one. I gestured to my guards to evacuate her from my office premises. She was seized by the hands before she understood what my looking away from her had meant.
She was a gorgeous woman, to be fair, but not one I could rule a pack with. She was not only very disrespectful but also self-centered and the latter only reminded me of my mother. Jessika had mentioned wanting attention as my mother had hungered for it. Her desires had caused her to abandon me.
Something I would never forgive, nor forget.
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She was unqualified for the job; the last person he would have considered if it were in his place gives any one of the unqualified girls a chance. She was very young as well. Neil could only wonder what he had seen in her. However, he would be the last person to openly question the alpha’s decision.
Lake Rush seemed calm, and collected but under the surface was a man to not be messed with. He hardly showed emotions, never for once had he been seen shedding a tear. No one dared to cross him, not unless they had plans to die. And his wolf, River, was the most beautiful anyone had ever seen, yet, the most ruthless.
He had never lost a fight, no matter how tough. He never backed down. Whatever Alpha Lake wanted, alpha Lake got.
He was not only good as a leader but also a profound businessman who had never lost a business deal. The Rush Empire was owned by his family, but the Casino was single-handedly established by him. He worked to earn its place as the biggest in the city.
Women were nothing but flings to him and after being by his side for so long, it had begun to seem like that to Neil too.
He had just finished speaking with the private investigator who delivered the reports to him. He went through it first to confirm its quality and comprehensiveness, before he headed to the alpha’s office, a floor directly above his. He knocked twice, and when he was called in, he stepped in and bowed in respect.
“Greetings, Alpha Lake.” He started.
The alpha bobbed his head in acknowledgment, his eyes fixed on the laptop before him. The young man continued.
“I got the background report of JoJo Wyatt.”
Neil stood in silence as the alpha stretched his hand, to receive the document. He placed it in his boss’s hand carefully. The alpha’s eyes skimmed through the text.
“Jesse Wyatt was banished.” He said calmly.
“True, Alpha. With his entire family. They do not have their wolves anymore, either.” He added.
The alpha read it all in cold silence. He slammed the file shut and slid it across his table.
“How did she incur such a debt?”
“Her mother has been in the hospital with brain hemorrhage for eight years now, Alpha,” Neil stated. The alpha tapped his fingers against the table, sitting in eerie silence.
“You know what to do when she becomes part of the agency.” The alpha spoke, breaking the deadlock of silence while looking straight into Neil’s eyes. Neil understood his assignment; to clear the girl’s debt. It was something they did for all their strippers, but hers was… outrageous!
“I know what to do, Alpha,” Neil answered.
The alpha dismissed him with a wave of his hand.